In 2012, DC Comics returned to the world of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen for a series of prequel books called—appropriately enough—Before Watchmen. The stunt wasn’t particularly well-received, partly because of Moore’s icy relationship with DC, but DC”s next big revival of a critically acclaimed and iconic comic book should be less controversial. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, DC and its Vertigo imprint are going to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman with a new line of Sandman Universe comics (with Gaiman’s support, thankfully).
The line will begin with four Sandman comic spin-offs featuring alternate characters who are not traditional Sandman protagonist Dream, with each written and drawn by new creative teams. The storylines of the new books will be established in a one-shot comic called The Sandman Universe #1, and then they’ll break out into their own separate comics. One is House Of Whispers, written by Nalo Hapkinson, which will center on a voodoo god named Erzulie who winds up in Dream’s realm the Dreaming with her eponymous house. There will also be Books Of Magic, which is written by Kat Howard and will act as a follow-up to Gaiman’s 1990 miniseries of the same name. Then there’s The Dreaming, written by Si Spurrier, which is about supporting characters from the Sandman universe dealing with the sudden disappearance of Dream. Finally, Dan Watters will write Lucifer, a revival of the series that was inexplicably adapted into the Fox show of the same name.
Entertainment Weekly says that artists for the individual books have not been released.